The only good thing about TV’s dead week, between Christmas and New Year’s, is how many networks fill the time by programming good movies and better double features. Here’s an example of both. Sundance showed this 1980 Stanley Kubrick film in prime time recently – last night, in fact, as recently as you can get – but tonight it leads off a double feature of horror films, followed at 9 p.m. ET by 1973’s The Exorcist. The two scariest movies ever made, shown as

2015

Dec

RAGING BULL By David Bianculli

Here’s another strong prime-time double feature of movies, this time showcasing two of Robert De Niro’s most classic performances. The action, and there’s lots of it, begins at 8 p.m. ET with Martin Scorsese’s 1980 Raging Bull, and concludes at 10:10 ET with the same director’s Taxi Driver, made four years earlier.

2015

Dec

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION By David Bianculli

This isn’t a double feature, but doesn’t have to be: This 1994 adaptation of the Stephen King story, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, is a fantastic viewing experience all by itself.

2015

Dec

HEROIN: CAPE COD, USA By David Bianculli

How did heroin resurface to become such a popular and pervasive drug recently, even (especially?) among the young and middle class? This HBO documentary sets out to answer that question – but focusing on eight young addicts, all in their twenties, residing in Cape Cod.

2015

Dec

THE EXORCIST By David Bianculli

This 1973 classic horror film is the second half of a great double feature, preceded at 5:30 p.m. ET by 1980’s The Shining. Watch them both, Decide which is scarier. Then marvel that both were made without CGI.

2015

Dec

TAXI DRIVER By David Bianculli

Yeah, I’m talking to you. This 1976 Martin Scorsese film, starring Robert De Niro, is an amazing movie, and has as much pull and tension as it did when it was released almost 40 years ago.

2015

Dec

DR. ZHIVAGO By David Bianculli

Great movie #1: This is “dead week” for TV, when even the premium cable networks, such as HBO and Showtime, basically kick back and take it easy. So with virtually no new Sunday night TV series shown tonight, in the quiet period between Christmas and New Year’s Day, the TV offerings to gravitate towards are movies. And here’s an excellent one: 1965’s Dr. Zhivago, directed by David Lean, and starring Omar Sharif and, at her most luminous, Julie Christie.

2015

Dec

SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL By David Bianculli

There’s another flex-time game presented tonight, and NBC has opted to televise the New York Giants, battling the Minnesota Vikings. There are playoff implications at stake here, but nothing seems more meaningful than what’s not happening – because Odell Beckham Jr., after his blatantly unsportsmanlike play last week, has been suspended for one game, and is ineligible to suit up tonight for the Giants.

2015

Dec

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST By David Bianculli

Great movie #2: This movie, directed by Milos Forman, is 40 years old – and next week, it will be 41. But it’s still as fresh as can be, and the antagonistic chemistry between Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, as patient and nurse, made stars of them both. The supporting cast is deep, and so is the story. If you’ve never seen it, please do.

2015

Dec

SCHINDLER'S LIST By David Bianculli

Great movie #3: Steven Spielberg’s WWII masterpiece – well, one of two of them, because there’s also Saving Private Ryan – is presented tonight, unedited and uninterrupted, on Showtime 2. And this 1993 biography of Oskar Schindler is a black-and-white triumph. Mostly black-and-white, that is, and when the color red makes an appearance, it’s haunting. Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley star.

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